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General discussionGalaxy downloads not retained?(17 posts)(17 posts)
(17 posts)
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Posted September 17, 2015
Hi guys,

I might be stupid in the sense that it should be obvious to me that the GOG Downloader and GOG Galaxy programs (or clients, if you prefer that term) are radically different beasts, ... but it is not obvious to me, I'm afraid, and so I have to ask.

When I set a "Download Games to:" path in GOG Galaxy, does it not retain the files it downloaded after installing them?

In other words ... I understand that using the GOG Downloader downloads game installations to somewhere from where I can then later run them at my leisure. Preferrably, I'd pick some disk or filesystem with a large capacity for this.

Am I to understand that whatever GOG Galaxy downloads is deleted immediately after installation? So that instead of asking it to save to my huge-but-slow storage space, I should just point it to my fast-but-little SDD instead, because there is no option to hang on to the downloaded files once the game has finished installing?

Thank you in advance for any helpful responses. And again, sorry for being stupid.
Posted September 17, 2015
If you want the downloaded files to stay on your PC use the backup feature of Galaxy (more button).
Posted September 17, 2015
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TightByte: Hi guys,

I might be stupid in the sense that it should be obvious to me that the GOG Downloader and GOG Galaxy programs (or clients, if you prefer that term) are radically different beasts, ... but it is not obvious to me, I'm afraid, and so I have to ask.

When I set a "Download Games to:" path in GOG Galaxy, does it not retain the files it downloaded after installing them?

In other words ... I understand that using the GOG Downloader downloads game installations to somewhere from where I can then later run them at my leisure. Preferrably, I'd pick some disk or filesystem with a large capacity for this.

Am I to understand that whatever GOG Galaxy downloads is deleted immediately after installation? So that instead of asking it to save to my huge-but-slow storage space, I should just point it to my fast-but-little SDD instead, because there is no option to hang on to the downloaded files once the game has finished installing?

Thank you in advance for any helpful responses. And again, sorry for being stupid.
There are two ways to download games with Galaxy. One is to "install" the game, which just installs the game without any installation files and the other one is to get a backup of the game (aka the good old installers). To get a backup, click the game you want, "More," "Get Backup and Extras" and you should be able to download a game's standalone installer and extras (if any).
Post edited September 17, 2015 by Grargar
Posted September 17, 2015
Ahh ... got it. Thanks for clearing that up. For some reason I thought the two options were rolled into one, but I now understand they are two distinct operations. Either install, or "Backup" (and then optionally install from there).

Thanks!
Posted September 17, 2015
The GOG Downloader downloads the installer .exe and .bin files.

From what I know of GOG Galaxy, it downloads the game files themselves, not the installers, so it does the installation as part of the download. This isn't great, at the moment, because the installers are often smaller than the installed game files (must be some compression), so you end up downloading more by using Galaxy than by using the old (and now unsupported) GOG Downloader or by using your browser.

EDIT: It has been a while since I used Galaxy, though, so they may have improved it since I last tried it.

EDIT 2: Just read some of the other responses above (they weren't there when I posted) and it looks like there must have been some improvements, as you can now choose to download the installers via Galaxy, which wasn't an option before.
Post edited September 17, 2015 by korell
Posted September 17, 2015
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korell: EDIT 2: Just read some of the other responses above (they weren't there when I posted) and it looks like there must have been some improvements, as you can now choose to download the installers via Galaxy, which wasn't an option before.
I think the ability has been there at least since the beginning of the beta, when the client was made available to the masses.

No idea about the alpha phase, I didn't try it back then.
Post edited September 17, 2015 by timppu
Posted September 17, 2015
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TightByte: Ahh ... got it. Thanks for clearing that up. For some reason I thought the two options were rolled into one, but I now understand they are two distinct operations. Either install, or "Backup" (and then optionally install from there).

Thanks!
I'd actually recommend downloading the Backup installers, installing the game and importing it into Galaxy because the Install option downloads the uncompressed game. Depending on the game and bandwidth that makes a huge difference in download size/time.
Posted September 17, 2015
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timppu: I think the ability has been there at least since the beginning of the beta, when the client was made available to the masses.

No idea about the alpha phase, I didn't try it back then.
I think I tried it a week or two before it went open beta. Logged in a few times, but then never used it since. I ought to give it another try one of the days.
Posted September 17, 2015
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korell: I think I tried it a week or two before it went open beta. Logged in a few times, but then never used it since. I ought to give it another try one of the days.
If you ask me better wait for some more improvements.
Posted September 17, 2015
I always download the 'backup' installers and install manually. Galaxy is still a far cry from perfect, but it can recognise manually installed games as well as it can ones it installed itself.
Posted September 17, 2015
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Navagon: I always download the 'backup' installers and install manually. Galaxy is still a far cry from perfect, but it can recognise manually installed games as well as it can ones it installed itself.
Have there been any issues using it as a downloader for the installers? I know I've seen some posts mentioning issues using it to download the installed game files (some games just don't work when installed via Galaxy) but if the downloader part of it works for the backup installers then that does make the old GOG Downloader obsolete.
Posted September 17, 2015
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korell: Have there been any issues using it as a downloader for the installers? I know I've seen some posts mentioning issues using it to download the installed game files (some games just don't work when installed via Galaxy) but if the downloader part of it works for the backup installers then that does make the old GOG Downloader obsolete.
Yeah, you can just use it as a GOG downloader substitute and that's all it needs to be. It does that job well enough. Plus you can do it all through Galaxy, rather than needing a browser to initiate the download.
Posted September 17, 2015
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korell: Have there been any issues using it as a downloader for the installers? I know I've seen some posts mentioning issues using it to download the installed game files (some games just don't work when installed via Galaxy) but if the downloader part of it works for the backup installers then that does make the old GOG Downloader obsolete.
Didn't really have any issues with downloaded installers, but the Galaxy client is still missing some of the downloader's function:

1) No checking and skipping an installer if it has been already downloaded meaning that, unlike the downloader, the Galaxy will begin re-downloading the whole installer again, wasting precious bandwidth.
2) No hash check.
3) No way to download all the extras at once. You'll instead have to click them, one-by-one.
Post edited September 17, 2015 by Grargar
Posted September 17, 2015
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Grargar: 1) No checking and skipping an installer if it has been already downloaded meaning that, unlike the downloader, the Galaxy will begin re-downloading the whole installer again, wasting precious bandwidth.
2) No hash check.
Do these two points mean that it can't work like a download manager and resume a partial download? If so, I'll stick with the old GOG Downloader for large downloads for now (I can get about 1.3GB downloaded in an hour at best).
Posted September 17, 2015
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korell: Do these two points mean that it can't work like a download manager and resume a partial download?
It should, since it will be checking the temporary folder for what's already there. Once the file is downloaded though, it will be moved to a different folder, thus why it won't be checked before downloading. For now at least.
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General discussionGalaxy downloads not retained?(17 posts)(17 posts)
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